In the dental art, it is often necessary for a dentist to obtain casts of a dental patient's teeth. These casts, typically, are obtained by having a patient bite down on a bite-fork which contains a molding medium. To obtain these casts, a dentist ordinarily places a face-bow, which has a bite-fork secured thereto, on the head of a dental patient. This face-bow, generally, consists of an arcurate member which spans across the front of a patient's face from one side to the other and has a pair of opposed inwardly directed hinge pointers which are adapted to be secured to the patient's face in alignment with his jaw hinge-axis. The aforementioned bite-fork is generally centrally disposed on the arcurate member of the face-bow so that the dentist can make a cast of the patient's teeth and at the same time be able to ascertain the space relationship between the patient's teeth and his jaw hinge-axis.
The task of placing the face-bow in proper alignment with the patient's jaw hinge-axis often proves to be quite awkward, as the face-bow must be rigidly secured to the patient's face with the hinge pointers thereof being disposed in overlying registry with the patient's jaw hinge condyles. Generally, the dentist locates the patient's jaw hinge condyles and marks the patient's skin indicating the location of same. The dentist then places the face-bow on the patient's head making sure that each hinge pointer is located over the marks previously placed on the patient's face. However, this often requires the use of an assistant, as one hand is required to hold the face-bow and another hand is required for each hinge pointers in order to place them in proper position. This procedure is further complicated by the fact that the face-bow must be rigidly secured to the patient's face with sufficient pressure to prevent the hinge pointers from slipping away from their requisite locations. A further complication, of course, is that the face-bow cannot be placed so tightly on the patient's face as to cause him discomfort. In order to prevent discomfort to the patient, dentists have, in the past, used various head cap apparatuses which consist of a cap worn by the patient having a pair of depending flag portions each of which is adapted to be disposed between a patient's jaw hinge condyle and the hinge pointer. The use of such head cap apparatuses further complicates this procedure as the dentist and his assistant must make certain that each of the flag portions, as well as the hinge pointers, is in proper alignment with the patient's jaw hinge-axis.